We’re all profoundly aware of the changes that need to happen. It is time to end the pity-parties and bitch sessions and get to work. Change isn’t easy because nobody holding five aces asks for a new deal. Activists like Mrs. Robinson and me are in our retirement years. We might have come a long way, baby, but there are miles and miles to go before anybody can sleep peacefully. It is time for young people to step up.

Those who have arisen because of

our Bloody Sunday have excelled.

– Amelia Boynton Robinson

I have always loved the symbol of a bridge for change which empowers us. It takes real courage to cross a bridge from our past to our futures. At the same time, a bridge allows us to take prudent risks: our leap of faith comes with a solid pavement beneath our feet.

If we want to make a difference in the world, we must first make important changes within ourselves. These are changes we can control and implement. We can, for example, learn to respect ourselves, our time, our bodies, our talents, etc. We empower ourselves by becoming more independent and resourceful. We can take steps to become more healthy physically, spiritually, financially, and emotionally. And, we can create safe havens for ourselves.

Our first change can be very simple: the color purple can remind us that we have dignity and deserve justice.

Jane Fonda and Kit Gruelle

Kit Gruelle wanted to change the conversation about domestic violence. She asked her friend Cynthia Hill to help her create a documentary. Private Violence won a Sundance Award and premiered on HBO. This weekend she’s celebrating International Women’s Day in New York City with feminist leaders including Jane Fonda and Gloria Steinem. Bravo!

Thank you, Becca, for informing me that International Women’s Day is a very important holiday in Russia.

Elizabeth Gilbert is the quintessenial role model for leveraging a person's talents to learn how to survive, thrive, and find joy. When life handed her the lemons of a bitter divorce, she squeezed those lemons into the stratosphere of best-selling books. Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India, and Indonesia was on th […]

Physical abuse is no longer just about bruises and broken bones. Emotional abuse is about more than hurt feelings. The long-term health impacts of domestic violence (DV) are being characterized as "epidemic" and a "national scourge" by Robert S. Thompson, MD, because DV affects between 25% and 54% of women in their adult lifetimes, and a […]

The Artist's Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity: A Course in Discovering and Recovering Your Creative Self by Julia Cameron is a fabulous book and a 12-week fantastic experience. I've done the course twice. At the end of my first course, the other participants created a protection circle for me. It was a life-altering experience to be in th […]